Distribution of typographical pieces in distributing apparatus.



K. RUGER. DISTRIBUTION 0 POGRAPHICAL PIECES IN DISTRIBUTING APPARATUS.

PPLICATION FILED .IAN. I8; 1915.

1,192,936. Patented Aug. 1,1916.

PATENT OFFICE.

KARL ROGER, OF BERLIN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO MERGENTI-IALER LINOTYPE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

DISTRIBUTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL PIECES IN DISTRIBUTING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

Application filed January 18, 1915. Serial No. 2,949.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, KARL ROGER, a subject of the German Emperor, residing at 33 leltowerstrasse, Berlin, in the Empire of Germany, have invented new and useful Improvements in or Relating to the Distribution of Typographical Pieces in Distributing Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

The matrices or type dies, hereinafter referred to as pieces, employed'in typographical machines such as those known commercially under the trade-mark Linotype, are provided, in their upper edges, with distributing teeth located in a V- shaped recess cooperating with ridged bars of the second elevator and distributer box, and the ridged and permuted V- shaped distributer bar, along which the pieces travel, the number and arrangement of the teeth differing according to the characters on the pieces. Each piece hangs from the bar with which it is for the time being engaged, by not less than one pair of teethone on one side of its notch and an opposite one on the other side thereof-each tooth engaging with a ridge on the respective side of the bar. WVhen a piece has, and most of them have, more than one pair of teeth, there is a possible corresponding number of ridge engagements. Now a piece has to travel along all the bars, its weight deciding the amount of frictional wear to which its teeth are subjected. This amount is sufficient in the case of pieces having only one pair of teeth, to wear them out prematurely. The present invention prevents this wear by so arranging the tooth combinations, and the ridges, that every piece shall hang by at lc ast two pairs of teeth throughout almost the whole of its travel along the bars. For this purpose a complete font of pieces is divided into groups, each of which is pro vided with a distinctive pair, or pairs, of

teeth, the remaining teeth being used to distinguish each individual piece within the group.

The invention will now be described withreference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a constructional form thereof, and in which- Figure l is a front elevation of the ridged and permuted distributer bar; Fig. 2 is a section of the said bar taken through the part marked 2 in Fig. 1; and Figs. 3 to 6 show pieces having four different combinations of distributing teeth.

In the constructional form of the invention lllustrated, the permutations on the distrlbuter bar are formed from seven pairs of ridges, and the distributing combinations on the pieces are similarly formed from seven pairs of teeth, as is usual in existing arrangements. According to the present inventlon, the three upper pairs of teeth (hereinafter termed group teeth) and three upper pairs of ridges are used for dividing the pieces into groups, the remainmg four pairs of teeth (hereinafter termed character teeth), and pairs of ridges bemg relied upon for the separation of the individual pieces within the groups.

The permutations on the distributer bar shown 1n Fig. 1 are capable of dealing with six groups of pieces according to the following arrangement: The group teeth of the first group of pieces consist only of the top pair, which are inoperative over the portion of the bar between the points marked A and B in Fig. 1; the group teeth of the second group consist only of the second pair, which are inoperative between the points B and C; the group teeth of the third group consist of the first and second pairs, which are inoperative between the points C and D; the group teeth of the fourth group consist only of the third pair, which are inoperative between the points D and E; the group teeth of the fifth group consist of the first and third pairs, which are inoperative between the points E and F; and the group teeth of the sixth group consist of the second and third pairs, which are inoperative between the points F and G. The character teeth of the respective groups, which are of known combinations will come into operation to effect the separation of the pieces according to character, along that portion of the distributer bar over which the respective group teeth are inoperative, and further, each matriX will hang by at least one pair of group teeth, in addition to at least one pair of character teeth, while it is traveling along the unpermuted ridged bars (not shown in the drawings), and during almost the whole of its travel along the ridged and permuted distributer bar, until it reaches that portion of the latter over which the character teeth alone are operative.

The pieces shown in Figs. 3 t0 6 belong 11 0 respectively to the first, third, fourth, and fifth groups enumerated above, and will serve to illustrate the following description of the operation of the invention: It will be understood of course that the arrangement of the character teeth in other pieces of these groups will vary according to character. lhe piece shown in Fig. 3 has the top pair of group teeth and the fourth pair of character teeth; it will consequently hang by both these pairs until the group teeth be come inoperative at the point A where it will be released from the bar, seeing that the fourth pair of ridges which had been engaging the character teeth are cut away at that point, as well as the top pair of ridges which had been engaging the group teeth. The piece shown in Fig. a has the first and second pairs of group teeth and the fourth and sixth pairs of character teeth, and will hang by both pairs of group teeth up to the point A, by the second pair of group teeth between A and B and by the first pair of group teeth between B and C. During almost the whole of its travel up to the last mentioned point, this piece will have been also hanging by at least one pair of its char acter teeth. Beyond the point C, the group teeth become inoperative, and the piece will thereafter hang by its character teeth only until it reaches the point indicated by the arrow 4, whereit will be released from the bar by reason of the cutting away of the fourth and sixth pairs of ridges corresponding to its character teeth. The piece shown in Fig. 5 will hang by the third pair of group teeth up to the point D, as well as by at least one pair of character teeth during almost the whole of its travel up to that point. Between the point D and that indi cated by the arrow 5, it will hang by its character teeth only, and it will be released from the bar at the last-mentioned point, by reason of the cutting away of the fourth, fifth and seventh ridges corresponding with the said character teeth. The piece shown in Fig. 6, being provided with the first and third pairs of group teeth, will hang by at least one of those pairs, as well as by at least one pair of character teeth during almost the whole of its travel, up to the point E, from which point the character teeth only will be operative until the point 6 is reached, where the piece will be released from the bar owing to the cutting away of the fifth, sixth and seventh pairs of ridges corresponding to the respective character teeth.

It will be noted that, in the constructional form of the invention described above, the pieces are divided into only six groups, and consequently only six combinations formed from the three pairs of group teeth are used. There is, however, a seventh possible combination of the said three pairs of group teeth,

in which all three pairs would be present, and this could be employed, with suitable modifications of the distributer bar, either to deal with an additional group of pieces, or as an alternative to one or other of the said siX combinations, and it is to be understood that any such variation of the grouping or combinations or both falls within the scope of the present invention.

Having described my invention, I declare that what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is i 1. In a typographical machine comprising circulating pieces formed with V-shaped recesses, the combination of V-shaped distribu ter bar along which the pieces are adapted to travel, pairs of permuted ridiges on the said bar, and two sets of pairs of distributing teeth locatedin the said recesses of the circulating pieces and adapted to engage and cooperate with the said ridges for the pur pose of separating the pieces according to group and character respectively.

2. In a typographical machine comprising circulating pieces formed with V-shaped recesses, the combination of V-shaped distributer bar along which the pieces are adapted to travel, two sets of pairs of permutedridges on the said bar adapted to separate the pieces according to group and character respectively, and pairs of distributing teeth in the said recesses of the circulating pieces and respectively adapted to engage and cooperate with the said ridges. V

3. In a typographical machine comprising circulating pieces formed with V-shaped recesses, the combination of V-shaped distributer bar along which the pieces are adapted to travel, pairs of permuted ridges on the said bar adapted to separate the pieces according to group, pairs of teeth in the said recesses of the circulating pieces and adapted to engage with the said ridges and of which at least one pair will so engage during the separation according to group, pairs of permuted ridges on the said bar adapted to separate the pieces according to character, pairs of teeth in the said recesses adapted to engage with the last mentioned ridges and of which at least one pair will so engage during the whole of the travel of the piecealong the bar.

4:. In an apparatus for distributing typographical pieces, the combination with a V- shaped distributer bar along which the pieces are adapted to travel, of two sets of pairs of permuted ridges formed on opposite sides of the bar and adapted respectively to separate the pieces according to group and character.

5. The combination with a V-shaped distributer, of a typographical piece to cooperate therewith, and formed with a V-shaped recess and with two sets of pairs of distributing teeth located in said recess, one set constituting a group combination and the other a character combination.

6. In an apparatus for distributing typographical pieces, the combination of V- shaped distributor bar along which the pieces are adapted to travel, two sets of pairs of permuted ridges on the said bar adapted respectively to separate the pieces according to group and character, a typographical piece having a V-shaped recess, and two sets of pairs of distributing teeth located in the said recess adapted respectively to engage with the said two sets of pairs of ridges, at least two of such pairs of teeth being so ongaged during the whole of the travel of the said piece along the bar.

7. In an apparatus for distributing typographical pieces, the combination of V- shaped distributer bar along which the pieces are adapted to travel, two sets of pairs of permuted ridges on the said bar adapted respectively to separate the piece according to group and character, a typographical piece having a V-shaped recess, and two sets of pairs of distributing teeth located in the said recess adapted respectively to engage with the said two sets of pairs of ridges, at least two of such pairs of teeth being so engaged during the separation of the said piece according to group.

8. A font of typographical pieces, each piece of the font being formed with at least two pairs of sustaining teeth, in combination with a distributor to cooperate therewith.

9. A font of typographical pieces, each piece of the font being formed with at least two pairs of sustaining teeth, one pair constituting a group-distributing combination and another a character-distributing combination, in combination with a distributor to cooperate with the pieces.

10. A distributer bar formed with two like series of longitudinal ridges located on opposite sides thereof, some of the corresponding ridges on the opposite sides being cut away to provide a plurality of groups of character-distributing combinations, and the remaining corresponding ridges being cut away to provide group-distinguishing combinations.

11. A distributer bar having a plurality of groups of character-distributing combinations, and a corresponding plurality of group-distinguishing combinations.

12. ,A font of typographical pieces divided into groups, each piece of the font being provided with 'two distributing combinations, one a character combination and the other a group combination, in combination with a distributor bar formed with group and character combinations to cooperate with those of the pieces.

In witnesses whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

KARL RGGER.

Witnesses:

GUSTAV KERKER, KEsTANs WISGZORKIEWICZ.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G. 

